MILITANT groups slammed what they described as the “sellout of lands” to foreign corporations and want those concerned for “such act of treason and national plunder” investigated.

The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamamalakaya) and the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) want lawmakers to investigate the lease of 400,000 hectares of land in Northern Luzon to Pacific Bio-Fields Corp. of Japan, a company based in the United Kingdom, for the production of coco-biodiesel for 50 years.

“While the government is begging for some 400 nursing and caregiving jobs in Japan, it is prostituting the patrimonial and sovereign rights of all Filipinos by offering the country’s 400,000 hectares of lands to Japanese transnational giants,” Pamalakaya national chairman Fernando Hicap lamented.

“This is very, very ridiculous, preposterous and totally insulting to the collective sentiment and national interest of the Filipino public,” he added.

Environment Secretary Lito Atienza on Saturday confirmed the existence of the agremeent, saying the government will lease over 400,000 hectares of land in Northern Luzon to Pacific Bio-Fields Corp. of Japan at “very, very affordable prices.”

Atienza said the lands will be leased to Pacific Bio-Fields and its local partner, Bio-Energy North Luzon Inc., a company headed by a former lawmaker, for 25 years. This is renewable for another 25 years.

Bio-Fields is investing in a large-scale project to reforest idle lands in mostly upland communities in Northern Luzon, and convert coconut into auto fuel for Japanese users.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) had entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) months ago, making 400,000 hectares available for coconut plantation under the department’s upland development project.

In return, the DENR will be charging the PCA a “standard rental fee,” according to Environment Undersecretary Manuel Gerochi. The PCA has a separate agreement with the investor on the planting of coconut trees on the idle land and the installation of a plant for the processing of cocomethyl ester, or biodiesel.

The Pacific Bio-Fields Plc., a Japanese holding company based in the United Kingdom, had said it was allowed by the Philippine government to use exclusively 400,000 hectares of land for free for 50 years for the planting of coconut trees.

Pacific Bio-Fields Holding Plc. and Bio-Energy NL had agreed to utilize some 400,000 hectares of forest areas for coconut plantation for free provided that 60 percent of biodiesel products will be acquired by the Philippine government, and the remaining 40 percent would supply bio-diesel fuel to Japan for Japanese users in five years.